Blockchain-powered software that ensures drugs’ traceability, a diagnostic tool to identify microbes in the blood and a device to prevent cardiac arrest in heart disease patients are among the winning European projects of a competition for young innovators.

The annual Innovators Under 35 Europe list created by the MIT Technology Review recognises seven categories, of which biotechnology and medicine entries received the most laureates, with 19 out of the 35 winners.

A judging committee of 116 specialists and 60 ambassadors, selected the winning entries from a pool of more than 1,000 candidates.

WHY IT MATTERS

The winning entries included:

• Erik Gatenholm - co-founded Cellink, a company that markets a bio-ink more suitable for printing human tissues and organs 
• Ester Caffarel-Salvador - created the Luminal Unfolding Microneedle Injector (LUMI), which allows oral administration of drugs through capsules composed of dissolvable micro-needles and the Self-orienting Millimetre Scale Applicator (SOMA), a millimetre pill, which administers insulin without being degraded in the process
• Idoia Ochoa - developed new digital formats that store, transmit, visualise, and analyse genome-related data to drive personalised medicine
• Tom Stubbs - devised an epigenetic tool which offers lifestyle recommendations to reduce the onset of chronic disease
• Marek Sirendi - created the CodeRhythm software which aims to predict and prevent cardiac arrest in heart disease patients
• Teresa Arroyo-Gallego - developed NeuroQWERTY, a project that analyses people's interaction with their smart devices to support early diagnoses of Parkinson’s Disease
• Arnaud Pourredon - set up Meditect, a platform for pharmaceutical companies, which uses blockchain technology for tracking and authentication throughout the distribution chain
• Lauri Sippola - created the platform KaikuHealth, which monitors treatment of cancer patients and uses machine learning to predict the evolution of treatments
• Mark Fingerhuth - created the company ProteinQure, specialising in the development of computational methods capable of designing new chemical structures by synthesising and testing different proteins
• Philip Stevens - developed a diagnostic tool that sequences blood samples, reports microbial findings, and evaluates the severity of patients’ health status
• Sorin Popa designed the ePATH vascular catheter, which makes it possible to reduce the number of vascular operations and the risk of infection.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Since 1999, MIT Technology Review has created an annual list of the most talented entrepreneurs aged between 24 and 34, who are developing new technologies or creatively applying existing technologies to help solve global problems. 

ON THE RECORD

Diagnostic tool creator Stevens said: “Thanks to this new way of studying blood samples, a patient's data can be analysed in just 10 minutes to quickly detect the microbe that is causing the infection. This technology has the potential to change the way infections are diagnosed, something that will help thousands of doctors treat millions of patients.”

Meditect creator Pourredon said: “This chain brings together all the actors involved in the supply process; from pharmaceutical companies to logistics, through governments, regulators, security forces, and patients.”